Pittsburgh Pirates Hire Minnesota Twins Bench Coach Derek Shelton As New Manager
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The Pirates have hired Derek Shelton as the next manager to lead the team.
The announcement was made Wednesday afternoon by the Bucs.
"The Pirates have hired Derek Shelton as our 41st Manager of the organization. Shelton has 15 years of coaching experience and spent the last two seasons as the bench coach of the Minnesota Twins."
The Pirates will introduce Shelton as the next manager during a press conference next Wednesday, December 4th.
Shelton, 49, has 15 years of coaching experience at the MLB level, but this will be his first manager job of his career. He was with the Minnesota Twins since the start of the 2018 season as the bench coach. He spent one season as the Quality Control Coach for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2017. He served as a hitting coach for a couple of teams before that, working for the Cleveland Indians from 2005-2009 and the Tampa Bay Rays from 2010-2016. Before coaching, Shelton was a minor league catcher for a couple of seasons in the New York Yankees organization.
"My family and I are thrilled to have the opportunity to join the Pittsburgh community and are humbled to be a part of this storied franchise," Shelton said. "One of the most exciting things for me during the interview process was just how evident the passion for Pittsburgh and the desire to succeed was with everyone I interacted with."
"I have known Derek for more than 15 years and have great admiration for his passion for the game and players, work ethic, curiosity, and desire to learn," Pirates General Manager Ben Cherington said. "He has worked and learned from some of the best in the game, and in turn has helped players and colleagues learn and improve during his 20 years of coaching and managing. We are confident Derek will help lead an elite playing and coaching environment at the Major League level and be a true partner to all of baseball operations as we challenge each other to get better every day. I want to thank our entire baseball operations group for their tireless work over the past several weeks of this search. We are thrilled to get to work with Derek and continue building toward a winning team in Pittsburgh."
Earlier in the week, it was reported that the job search was down to two candidates, including Shelton.
